Items discussed at the October 2018 SPAC meeting
Notes from the Senior Positions Advisory Committee meeting October 2018
Issues raised by SPAC on behalf of senior leaders at its last meeting:
Acting up allowance
The MoE has agreed that the way payroll has been incorrectly interpreting the acting up allowance when a principal is away on school business. They can either be on leave or simply absent on school business. Anyone senior leader who has been denied the acting up allowance for this reason should reapply.
Surplus staffing 2018
The provisional staffing notices are now in schools. If schools have a drop of 1 or more FTTE in staffing they will be ‘in protection’ and will need to manage the reduction following discussion with staff. Schools must follow the surplus staffing provisions of the relevant collective agreement. The key message is don’t delay!
There are three stages:
- Attrition
- Voluntary offers
- CAPNA (curriculum, management and pastoral needs analysis)
The timeframe is tight and all three stages must be completed by 27th November. Notice of disestablishment for any positions take effect on 28th January 2019. The Ministry pays for positions disestablished within the number required for reduction.
Schools which are in protection will be receiving a letter from PPTA advising them of the support and asking if they think they may need to undertake a CAPNA.
The Association has trained nominees around the country to assist schools with the CAPNA process. There is a resource kit and CAPNA spreadsheet which can be accessed from the local Field Office. The field officer will provide a presentation to the branch on the processes and a nominee will be assigned to any school needing to undertake the CAPNA.
The surplus staffing 2018 timeline and process summary can be found on the Senior Positions Advisory Committee community page
Surplus staffing 2018 (ppta.org.nz)
Meal allowances
There is a requirement to pay a meal allowance to staff when schools require attendance that delays return home for an evening meal (STCA clause 7.2 (d) or ASTCA 6.2.1 (d)).
Key points:
- An individual entitlement, not an option, when teachers are asked to delay return home when they would have an evening meal.
- As an allowance no receipts are required – for accounting record the number of allowances paid.
- Schools can provide the option of a meal in exchange for the allowance but simply providing a meal does not cancel out the entitlement. To avoid problems good practice would be:
- the school, after consulting staff, provides the opportunity for an appropriate evening meal, taking into account the value of the meal allowance is $15.
- a ‘sign up’ system is used to identify those opting for the meal.
- a reasonable time is given for staff to sign up for the meal for catering purposes.
- staff who do not agree to the exchange and do not have the meal are paid the allowance.
For more detailed advice see the SPAC resources section of the Senior Positions Advisory Committee community page at ppta.org.nz
Payment of meal allowance (ppta.org.nz)
NCEA review update
There is now a professional widely representative advisory group alongside the ministerial advisory group.
Timeline has been pushed out:
- 19 October public engagement closed
- Late November final NZ Speaks report released
- Co-labs on 5th and 6th December.
- MoE works with education profession to review what is viable
- February 2019 MoE advises changes to NCEA (broad ideas with options)
- Cabinet to agree any changes in April 2019 for sign off.
- Further consultation towards end of 2019 when a detailed change implementation plan is released.
To give time for schools to prepare and ensure support for change is available there will be no changes until 2020.
The PPTA submission and the NZ Initiative report on NCEA are useful background.
PPTA submission to the NCEA Review - Big Opportunities (PDF)
Spoiled by choice: How NCEA hampers education and what it needs to succeed (nzinitiative.org.nz)
NCEA review 2018: an opportunity for change annual conference paper (PDF)
NCEA have your say (education.govt.nz)
Industrial update
STCA negotiations
The MoE have made claims on:
- hours of work – ‘clarifying’ teachers can be expected to work for more than 40 hours a week,
- allowing employers to call teachers back when schools are not open for instruction for 10 days for any reason,
- a working party after settlement on part 5 of the STCA,
- redrafting surplus staffing and mergers provisions to make them easier to follow,
- the inclusion of a clause in the surplus staffing from the merger provisions which allows employers to miss the deadlines for administrative reasons.
- Parental leave - rewording and a change to the way the maternity grant is calculated.
- inserting a clause to the discipline procedures to allow the employer to remove a permanent unit for a conduct matter.
- allowing a lower proportion of permanent units and management allowances.
Area schools negotiations
The ASTCA expires in April 2019. There is a slightly different claims development process because we have to form a joint claim with NZEI. We are in the middle of face to face and video conference PUMs with our members.
Visit the STCA Negotiations Updates section of the members only side of the PPTA website for more information.
Legal updates
The ERA amendment bill – a few changes have been made. There has been a CTU submission to the select committee.
PPTA’s part time non-contact case is continuing slowly. Hoped originally to be in court in September it was moved back to November, and again to February next year. PPTA and the MoE have provided disclosure on 30,000 documents from each organisation.
Tomorrows Schools Review
Update: Since the October SPAC meeting the Tomorrow's Schools taskforce has released its report. PPTA's response to the report can be read in the News and Media section:
Secondary teachers welcome bold thinking (ppta.org.nz)
You can read the report on the Ministry of Education's website:
Tomorrow's Schools review (conversation.education.govt.nz)
Details on what was discussed at the October SPAC meeting about the review can be found under SPAC resources
Tomorrow's Schools review - updated (ppta.org.nz)
The Teaching/Education Council
A win for teachers was the reinstatement of majority of elected teachers on the education council. The Bill will be passed by end of the year and elections run end of 2019.
More information about the elections and how to nominate can be found on the PPTA website.
Nominate now for the teaching council elections (ppta.org.nz)
COOLs
Some institutions of merit can deliver on line already. The framework for COOLs would have opened the door to unregulated private providers. The legislation has been reversed and work is being done on how to support VLNs.
Removal of national standards
The legislation is progressing through the House.
Teacher supply
The March 2018 PPTA staffing survey showed the worst supply situation we have been in since our own records began in 1996. There are schools currently that have closed for the day because they cannot find day relievers. The day reliever pool has been drained to fill the gaps in the regular teaching force.
We are looking at on-going secondary shortages for more than the next twelve years unless there is a significant resetting of the fundamentals around pay and workload.
The Ministry is developing a dashboard of basic teacher demographic and supply information and redeveloping a model of supply forecasting after abandoning supply projections in 2009.
They released their supply projections for secondary and primary on 14th October. We do not agree with some of the MoE assumptions underpinning it, such as whether demand and supply were in balance in 2017, and a number of important measures are not included in the model currently (such as subject breakdowns, relief teachers etc.) which make the prediction very unreliable.
Changes to NCEA attainment measures
NZQA has been working with the Ministry of Education on developing a new attainment measure. This enrolment-based measure will be used from 2019.
There are three ways NCEA attainment has been measured:
- The MoE’s school leaver measure, issued for 2018 the week prior to the SPAC meeting, which uses the highest attainment achieved by school leavers.
- NZQA’s participation-based measure of those who gained enough credit to get the qualification
- NZQA’s enrolment-based measure.
From January 2019 there will be no roll or participation-based measures, only an enrolment-based measure.
The new measure will give a more accurate indication of how many students are involved, and also a more accurate breakdown of ethnicity. Schools will be able to identify up to three ethnicities – and the accuracy of the school data will become more important.
More information is available under SPAC resources: